Research

Motivations

The brain is an efficient computational device for integrating multi-modal information coming from the sensory world, and turning them into behaviour. Computational neuroscience is the attempt to understand, with equations, how the brain processes and deals with information. Without aiming to answer the philosophical question "Who am I ?", it is a pragmatic attempt to reveal the basis of brain computations, and to understand the basic principles of neuronal dynamics.

My research is focussed on two main theme: neuronal networks and cortical plasticity. What's happening in your brain when you see a face, what's happening in your brain when you remember a name are open questions, both involving a proper comprehension of the fine biological machinery of the brain.

To be able, one day, to get answer to such questions, one need to understand what is a neuron, how can we model it, and how millions of them are interacting when wired together. The exact connections being them, higly plastic, are evolving as a function of their joint activity, and this is a crucial step to unravel the mechanisms behind those changes.

Hand-drawings made by Ramon y Cajal of cortical neurons. Various cell types can be observed